'The stress is always there' - Vingegaard and Visma's new strategy for Giro's opening phase

Movistar’s show of force on the climb of Cozzo Tunno won’t have pleased too many in the Giro d’Italia as they felt their way back into action after a travel day, but not all bike riders are created equal. Jonas Vingegaard certainly wasn’t complaining when he reached Cosenza at the end of stage 4.

“I don’t think it was that hectic,” Vingegaard said afterwards. “They were just riding hard, and I thought that was fine. Especially with that finish, it was good not to have a full peloton and all the sprinters fighting for position.”

Safety is the order of the day for Vingegaard and his Visma | Lease a Bike squad in the opening phase of this Giro. As ever, the race will be won in the high mountains, but it can be lost by moments of carelessness or simple bad luck at any point, as Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) can attest.

For Visma, reducing risk is the byword between now and the first summit finish at the Blockhaus on Friday, and that philosophy was already evident in the immediate aftermath of the mass crash on stage 2 to Veliko Tarnovo.

The race was briefly neutralised after the crash with 23km to go, but it resumed with precious little warning a few kilometres later. Vingegaard and Visma were vigilant throughout, however, and when the race hit the climb to Lyaskovets Monastery soon afterwards, the Dane went on the offensive, bringing rival Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) with him.

The aim wasn’t so much to gain time as to limit his exposure to chance, with Vingegaard figuring it was safer to expend a bit of energy in order to have a clear run at the descent. Winning the stage and even gaining time were secondary considerations, and Vingegaard betrayed no disappointment when he was caught in the final kilometre.

Vingegaard’s attack, sports director Marc Reef revealed, wasn’t drawn up on the hoof as a response to the crash. The offensive had already been built into the Visma playbook as an option months before the Giro.

“Already in the winter, we had been discussing that, because it could have been a chance if the situation was right,” Reef told Domestique. “We also discussed it in the morning before the stage. Of course, it wasn’t easy because then the big crash happened and the situation was a bit strange because the race was stopped. 

“When the race opened again, I think that only two or three riders next to the car noticed and they sped up, while all the rest were surprised by it. So for Jonas to switch on and still go for it was really good – and it created a safe situation, I think.”

Every day at a Grand Tour presents potential pitfalls, but there are always opportunities along the road for those who dare to seek them out. Vingegaard made an unsuccessful bid for bonus seconds at the Red Bull sprint on stage 4, while the rugged finale in Potenza on Wednesday might also tempt the GC men onto the offensive. Reef was adamant, however, that Vingegaard’s only aim was to break even with his rivals in the days before the rendezvous on the Blockhaus.

“We need to stay safe, that’s for sure the most important thing,” Reef said. “And then Blockhaus is the first real big day that is coming up.”

At last year’s Tour de France, Visma seemed to channel Cadel Evans’ BMC team by spending the bulk of the race, regardless of terrain, parked in the prime real estate at the head of the bunch, but their approach has been noticeably different here.

Then again, no two Grand Tours are precisely the same. At the Tour, Visma were on the front foot not only to avoid splits, but also in the vain hope that they might eventually put Tadej Pogacar under pressure. 

At the Giro, they have been content to pick and choose their moments at the front according to the terrain. On Cozzo Tunno on Tuesday, Visma left the forcing to Movistar. On the opening stage in Burgas, meanwhile, Visma seemed to mirror Marco Pantani’s Mercatone Uno guard by sitting at the back of the bunch in a group around Vingegaard.

“I think that changes a bit from stage to stage and it depends on the finals, of course,” Reef said. “On stage 1, we really wanted to stay in the back, because it was like 32km of a straight road on a big highway, so you always had an overview. You had time to brake early enough if there was a crash, and we had the riders around Jonas to be able to bring him back if it was needed. 

“And that also saves a lot of energy. You don’t need to use all your guys to stay up front. But then on stage 3, we stayed up there as a second team, and then when other teams came up on the big highway towards the finish line, we could just sit in the back again.”

Saving the legs of the men around Vingegaard where possible seems all the more essential following the abandon of Wilco Kelderman, a faller in the mass pile-up on stage 2, but Sepp Kuss, Victor Campenaerts and Davide Piganzoli looked comfortable by their leader’s side on Cozzo Tunno.

“Of course, the fight is always there, the stress is always there,” Reef said. “But we just need to keep doing what we did so far in the first stages: choose our moments to be in the front, but also choose our moments to back off.”

There will be no backing off, of course, when the Giro makes the long, cross-country trek to Abruzzo on stage 7, where the category 1 finish at the Blockhaus looks destined to bring some early definition to the overall standings.

“It’s the first real battle between the GC guns, so it will give a first idea how everybody is,” Reef said. “Of course there will be more tough stages coming afterwards. Stage 9 is also an uphill finish, and there is the TT on stage 10 and lots of hard days in the last week. But the Blockhaus gives a first impression on how everybody relates to each other.”